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Go the Fuck to Sleep

A gift book for parents that will have them laughing even as they cry.

$14.95$11.21

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What people are saying…

A New York Times, Amazon.com, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly number one best seller.

“A new Bible for weary parents.”
—New York Times

“Incredibly appealing.”
—NPR

“A parenting zeitgeist . . . A phenomenon that has stunned the publishing world and may just redefine the modern ‘parenting’ market.”
—Washington Post

“Delightfully obscene.”
—Newsweek

“Nothing has driven home a certain truth about my generation, which is approaching the apex of its childbearing years, quite like this deranged book.”
—The New Yorker

“Perfectly timed, lightly applied touches of profanity are funny. Super funny. It’s especially the case when the profanity puts words to common feelings that we aren’t really allowed to own up to. Well, in that spirit comes this perfect little picture-book parody.”
—Booklist

“By any definition, the subversive Go the F**k to Sleep — in which a desperate father cajoles his child to please, please, slip off into dreamland — is a real game changer; it lets frazzled parents vicariously enjoy chastising their stubborn offspring with well-placed profanity while never uttering a harsh word aloud.”
—Miami Herald

“Adam Mansbach’s Go the F**k to Sleep is the most controversial picture book on the shelves. Exhausted by his own daughter Vivien’s tedious two-hour bedtime routine, Adam penned a would-be bedtime book that speaks the mind of beleaguered parents everywhere and the difficulties of getting your child to ‘Go the F**k to Sleep.'”
—In Touch Weekly

“The bracing language may be earning it headlines, but its true appeal — and, I suspect, the reason it has caught on with the toddler-terrorised masses-lies in its unapologetic acknowledgement that early parenthood is a struggle, a state defined as often by frustration as delight. For the exhausted parent, nudged to the brink of sanity by lack of sleep, Go the Fuck to Sleep is more than a reason to snigger — it’s a gesture of compassion.”
—Daily Telegraph (UK)

“Anyone who has ever had a newborn, an infant, a baby, a toddler, a preschooler . . . oh, heck, anyone who has ever known a young child will understand the impetus behind Adam Mansbach’s runaway bestseller and ‘children’s book for adults.'”
—Shelf Awareness

“The stratospheric success of Go the Fuck to Sleep, I suspect, had much to do with the frustration we adults feel toward a society that automatically tags certain sentiments as vulgar, telling children that the only appropriate way to resolve conflict is by talking quietly and politely and telling parents that the only feeling permitted is one of contentment and gratitude. Fuck that. We, adults and children alike, are very often mad as hell, for no other reason than being perfectly human. And we need to see both mountains, need to hear all sorts of things, need to know our universe is not all blessing, not impossibly and repressively sweet.”
—Tablet Magazine

“Go the F**k to Sleep gives guilty fathers absolution.”
—Haaretz

“Adam Mansbach’s Go The Fuck To Sleep is one of the most joyfully sardonic, irreverent, and poignant books I have ever come across.”
—Verbicide Magazine

“Although I don’t recommend ever reading this to your child, it’s essential for all parents. It parodies children’s books and really hits home. Best accompanied by a glass of wine or something stronger.”
—Advocate, #1 Children’s Book

“A children’s book for grown-ups! I really did laugh out loud—hilarious!”
—David Byrne, father of one, musician, artist

“This is the most honest children’s book ever written. And it’s f*cking hilarious.”
—A.J. Jacobs, father of three, author of The Year of Living Biblically

“I wish this book had been around during my daughter’s overly protracted sleep rituals! Finally, someone tells it like it really is. This is no-guilt funny and a godsend!”
—Cristina García, mother of one, author of The Lesser Tragedy of Death

“Go the Fuck to Sleep is the secret anthem of tired parents everywhere. Adam Mansbach’s homage to the tropes of bedtime stories is pitch perfect, and Ricardo Cortes’s stunning illustrations will keep grown-ups and kids alike returning to these pages again and again!”
—Bliss Broyard, author of One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life

Description

*Every copy of Go the Fuck to Sleep ordered through this page is SIGNED by both Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés (while supplies last).

Check out this article about the growing trend of satirizing children’s board books at the New York Daily News.

Go the Fuck to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don’t always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, California Book Award–winning author Adam Mansbach’s verses perfectly capture the familiar—and unspoken—tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. In the process, they open up a conversation about parenting, granting us permission to admit our frustrations and laugh at their absurdity.

With illustrations by Ricardo Cortés, Go the Fuck to Sleep is beautiful, subversive, and pants-wettingly funny—a book for parents new, old, and expectant. You probably should not read it to your children.

Watch author Adam Mansbach discuss “daddy guilt” and striking a balance between work and home: